COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 12.11.26

Six council seats were filled on Thursday, with three Labour defences, a Reform defence and two free-for-alls.  Restore Britain stood across all six vacancies, a first for them.

Overall, Burnham will be very happy with Labour's electoral progress, certainly judging by these results.  While they lost two seats to Reform, the party's vote share increased by double digits in all but two of the seats and there was a bizarre situation in Lancashire, where the Labour candidate was suspended during the campaign and still won the seat without campaigning.

Conversely, Reform's vote share was down in all but one of the seats.  They still managed three gains (and one defeat), even with the presence of Restore Britain candidates, but the downward trajectory of their polling will be of more concern to Nigel Farage.  Based on these results, it's difficult to see anything other than a Labour majority at the next election, albeit dramatically reduced from 2024.  Will Burnham plump for an early election or take advantage of Starmer's big majority all the way to 2029?

Huncoat, Hyndburn Borough Council

Lab: 318 (34.4%) +10.5%

Ref: 275 (29.8%) -19.4%

Res: 257 (27.8%) New

Con: 74 (8.0%) -2.4%

Lab HOLD

Triggered by the death of the 76-year-old Labour incumbent, who was first elected for this ward way back in 1994.  He stood down at the end of one of his terms in 2006, but returned to the same ward a year later in the 2007 local elections and remained a councillor until his death.  The battle to succeed him was mired in controversy.  Labour selected a partially sighted candidate, who uses a cane, which led to her being labelled a 'Stevie Wonder lookalike' by one local Reform councillor.  The councillor refused to apologise for his remark and went on the offensive, unveiling a whole host of derogatory online remarks by the Labour candidate.  This included slights against trans, gay and obese people.  Labour suspended the candidate as a result, but not before the nomination papers had gone in.  This meant that she still appeared on the ballot paper as a Labour candidate, but will enter the council house as an independent.  The fact that she managed to improve Labour's vote share by double digits with no election campaign is extremely concerning, although she was aided in small part by the absence of a Green candidate (the Greens finished third last May with 234 votes).  Reform won on that occasion with more than twice the number of Labour votes.  However, Restore Britain's entry into this election decimated Reform's vote with a huge swing and delivered victory to what amounted to a paper candidate for the establishment.

Karl - Lab HOLD ✔

Rich - Ref GAIN ✘

Croft Baker, North East Lincolnshire Council

Ref: 797 (41.9%) -9.5%

Lab: 690 (36.3%) +16.4%

Res: 150 (7.9%) New

Con: 139 (7.3%) -0.9%

Grn: 91 (4.8%) -9.0%

Ind: 35 (1.8%) -1.1%

Ref GAIN from Lab

Triggered by the resignation of the Labour incumbent, due to an ongoing battle with cancer.  Elected in 2024, she had been given special dispensation to excuse her from council meetings dating back to March 2025, on account of her cancer treatment.  Reform thumped Labour in this ward back in May this year, hence Labour's vote share increased significantly on Thursday, but they did not win.  Reform won all but one of the 15 seats up for grabs in North East Lincolnshire in May.  Only a third of seats were up for election, but Reform's sweeping victories left them as the largest group on the council and they went on to dislodge the incumbent Tory administration and lead the council as a minority administration.  The curiously named Croft Baker ward actually includes Cleethorpes town centre and promenade.  There were no Lib Dem or Trade Unionist candidates on Thursday, with a Labour surge not enough to prevent Reform from taking the second of Croft Baker's three council seats.

Karl - Ref GAIN ✔

Rich - Ref GAIN ✔

Failsworth West, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council

Ref: 642 (41.5%) -14.4%

Lab: 600 (38.8%) +21.4%

Res: 175 (11.3%) New

Grn: 60 (3.9%) -11.2%

Con: 51 (3.3%) +0.7%

LDm: 19 (1.2%) -1.6%

Ref GAIN from Ind

You may see this portrayed as a hold for Reform, but the incumbent was elected as an independent in 2024.  A year later he joined Reform and went on to become their council group leader, with the party emerging from last May's elections as the second largest group behind Labour.  He resigned his seat following a diagnosis for two potentially dangerous health conditions.  Reform thumped Labour in this urban ward back in May this year, when a third of Oldham's council seats were up for election.  Labour lost more than half the seats it was defending, plunging the council into chaos that continues to this day.  Labour had led Oldham's council since 2011, including the last two years as a minority administration.  However, the fairly even split between Labour and Reform following May's election led to a stalemate as to who leads the council and Oldham still has no council leader six months on.  Labour would have hoped to have gained a seat on Thursday and boosted their chances of ending the council deadlock, but despite demolishing Reform's huge majority from last May, they came up short by 42 votes.

Karl - Lab GAIN ✘

Rich - Ref GAIN ✔

Cheddleton, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

Ref: 471 (37.8%) New

Con: 327 (26.3%) -5.6%

Lab: 213 (17.1%) -10.5%

Ind: 156 (12.5%) New

Res: 55 (4.4%) New

Grn: 23 (1.8%) -11.1%

Ref GAIN from Lab

Triggered by the resignation of the Labour incumbent, who is moving to York in order to work for Labour MP Luke Charters.  He was elected in 2023, taking the second of three seats in this semi-rural ward.  The first and third seats went to Conservative candidates.  The 2023 election was the last fought here and the first time Labour emerged as the largest party since 1995.  They edged out the Conservatives by two seats and formed a minority administration, although several defections since mean they are currently two seats behind the Tories.  That remains the case after Reform stunned all comers on Thursday with an impressive gain on debut.  There is no indication that the Tories will try and oust the Labour administration on the back of this result, with all seats up for grabs next May anyway and the council being abolished altogether a year later.  There were four independents on the Cheddleton ballot in 2023, none of whom stood on Thursday.

Karl - Lab HOLD ✘

Rich - Con GAIN ✘

Bosmere, Suffolk County Council

Con: 762 (33.2%) +13.8%

Grn: 739 (32.2%) +2.8%

Ref: 400 (17.4%) -16.0%

Res: 182 (7.9%) New

LDm: 109 (4.7%) -8.3%

Lab: 106 (4.6%) -0.1%

Con GAIN from Ref

Triggered by the resignation of the Reform incumbent after just four months in the role.  He had been elected to this mostly rural ward last May, in a gain from the Conservatives.  Citing both work and family commitments as reasons for his departure, he stated that his main job sometimes required him to work away from home.  Standing for public office should not be taken lightly, why did he not consider these complications prior to being nominated?  In any case, he presented his party with a tricky defence.  Reform swept to power in Suffolk on May 7, taking outright control of a council that had been run by the Conservatives for the majority of its 52 year existence.  Since then the Uniparty has been making a comeback and it continued on Thursday with an impressive Tory gain as Reform slumped to a distant third place.

Karl - Con GAIN ✔

Rich - Con GAIN ✔

Hindley Green, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Lab: 1,201 (49.5%) +16.8%

Ref: 887 (36.6%) -15.8%

Ind: 124 (5.1%) New

Res: 107 (4.4%) New

Con: 56 (2.3%) -2.5%

Grn: 42 (1.7%) -5.5%

LDm: 9 (0.4%) -2.6%

Lab GAIN from Ind

Triggered by the death of the 67-year-old incumbent, whose cause of death has not been disclosed.  He had been a councillor in this suburban ward since 2004, when he was initially elected as a member of the Community Action Party.  This little known outfit operated purely in four council authorities in the north west of England and folded in acrimony during the 2010s.  The deceased left the party in 2007 and won every single successive election since then as an independent, most recently in 2023.  He was due for re-election next May, with the other two seats in this ward going to Labour in 2024 and Reform last May, when Labour were beaten comfortably.  This ward sits on the eastern edge of Burnham's Makerfield constituency and his success in that Westminster by-election was repeated on Thursday with a significant swing from Reform back to Labour.  If there's such a thing as a 'Burnham bounce', it can be most certainly be found in the Makerfield constituency.

Karl - Lab GAIN ✔

Rich - Ref GAIN ✘

Karl led Richey by a single point going into this week's round of the head-to-head.  With a narrow victory this week he doubles his overall lead to two points.

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #52

Tony Dowling is one of those rare stubborn deluded ideologues who - despite spending an entire lifetime on earth - remains a revolutionary leftist.  Most young leftists grow up, learn a few lessons, take responsibility and realise that communist utopia is a fantasy of unworkable nonsense.  However, Tony is a teacher.  He's probably never had a manual job and instead went straight from the indoctrination camp of university into the left-wing bubble of teaching.

Originally from Birmingham, Dowling was outraged to witness the fruits of the Raise the Colours operation earlier this year as he returned to his home town for his mother's funeral.  Raise the Colours originated in Brum last year, before spreading far and wide.  In a long-winded letter to the Birmingham Mail newspaper - itself a left-wing rag - Dowling bemoaned the sight of national flags on lamp posts in the city.

He began his essay by asking: "Is Birmingham a racist city?".  However, this question was not based on infamous no-go zones in the inner city ring of Islamist dominated suburbs, where white people seldom venture.  No, his question was based on the erection of British and English flags in the outskirts of the city where many natives still reside - for now.

"It is likely that Birmingham is little different to other UK cities: there will be those with racist views in Birmingham, but the majority of its citizens will be antiracist and recognise racism for being both wrong and that incitement to racial hatred is against the law.  And as the Council's website says: 'Outside London, Birmingham is the UK’s most diverse city.  Promoting equality and tackling inequalities is at the heart of our goals at Birmingham City Council'".

And now Dowling launches into the flags...

"On a recent visit to Birmingham, however, to attend my mother's funeral, I was disturbed and disappointed to find that in large parts of the city, many streets had lampposts festooned with the George Cross and the Union flags.  According to a YouGov opinion poll conducted in October 2025, 'Both white and ethnic minority adults tend to see this summer’s lamppost flag raisings as primarily about spreading an anti-migrant or anti-ethnic minority message, rather than a display of patriotism.'  Sadly, the preponderance of these flags on the city's streets does give the impression of Birmingham as an anti-migrant and anti-ethnic minority city".

What a crock of shit.  Native people are the ethnic minority in Birmingham!  And speaking of white flight, one wonders why Dowling left this ethnically diverse city in the first place and relocated hundreds of miles away to the whiter than white north east of England.

He continues:

"Clearly, this is not the image of Birmingham that the City Council wishes to project.  And I am sure that the anti-racist majority in the city is unhappy about the impression that visitors to Birmingham perceive when confronted by these flags.  These concerns have been raised by a member of my family with their councillor and their MP.  The councillor confirmed that 'the impact of these flags has been to cause worry and concern amongst lots of residents' and that they are 'illegal and intimidating', whilst the MP stated that 'there are more than 10,000 flags now across the city'.  All of which projects a dreadfully negative image of Birmingham as an anti-migrant and anti-ethnic minority city, rather than the 'most diverse city, promoting equality and tackling inequalities' which the Council proclaims".

Finally, he calls on the Council to not only remove them, but prosecute Raise the Colours activists:

"It seems to me that the Council has both a moral and a legal responsibility to ensure that these illegally attached flags are removed, and to prosecute those responsible for their illegal installation".

Imagine taking such a spiteful attitude towards his own national flags in his own country.  Has he thought of emigrating to somewhere revolutionary like, say Cuba?  Perhaps he might find the sight of the Cuban national flag - in Cuba - less offensive.  What a deluded moron.

This is our first Woke Wednesday in quite some time.  The most recent previous edition generated 12 comments and five shares on Facebook.

AMERICA SECOND DID FOR TRUMP

This Israeli government billboard appeared in Tel Aviv after Trump's
presidential victory in 2024

A week ago the Republicans got one Hell of a beating in the midterm elections across the Pond.  Immediately, commentators looked to Trump's war on Iran (or rather Netanyahu's war that Trump dragged America into) and the spiralling inflation it has created in America and across the globe.  Libertarian comic Dave Smith called it before a single vote had been cast.  Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored on election night, he told the host the following.

"Donald Trump in 2024 pulled off the greatest comeback in American political history, from where he was after January 6 to coming all the way back - sweeping every swing state, winning the popular vote for the first time, winning the culture in America, the youth, UFC fighters were doing his dance, record numbers with Latino voters, record numbers with young people for Republicans - an overwhelming political comeback that could not have been predicted or really won't be appreciated for decades to come.  And here we are two years later with the entire thing squandered, all for a war on behalf of a foreign country."

Like Dave and countless others across America and the Western world, we were enthusiastic supporters of Trump's programme.  Then he began to turn on one of his key election pledges - no foreign wars on his watch.  First came the bombing of Iran's nuclear programme, then the audacious raid on Venezuela, coupled with repeated threats against the sovereignty of the Danish territory of Greenland.  Then, in February of this year, came his biggest downfall - the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The war was a catastrophic failure that did not achieve any conceivable objectives.  The Mullahs remain in place nine months later and every ordinary citizen across America and the West is poorer.  With voters facing rising bills, the only commentators pretending that the midterms could be anything other than disastrous for Trump's party appeared to be conservatives like Mark Levin, Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro.  They all share one thing in common - they are loyal to Israel first and America second.

Levin told his podcast prior to the election: "The vast majority of us are totally unaffected by the Iran War".  It was an obnoxious sneering elitist remark from a man whose net worth is reportedly $50million.  Of course he and his rich pals are unaffected, but every single ordinary American is very much affected by events in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, on election night, Dave Smith wasn't finished.  He continued:

"Donald Trump destroyed his presidency by covering up the Epstein scandal and launching a war of choice on behalf of Netanyahu.  And now, after the years of woke insanity, open borders policy, Covid insanity and all the effort that it took to roll that back and be a part of this new Trump movement - all squandered for a war for nothing".

A nail on the head, there's not much more we could possibly add to that.  Trump took what could have been the greatest presidency in living memory and demolished it for reasons unknown that will be speculated about for years to come.  We firnly believe that he would have won the midterms if he had stuck to domestic policy and put America first.  What we witnessed in Trump's second presidency is a massive wasted opportunity that will surely have dented confidence and trust in any future Republican hope.  Sorry, JD.

Our emoji poll on election day did not garner a massive response,
with opinion understandably split.  59 per cent said Republicans did
NOT deserve a kicking.  A kicking they got.

MEME MONDAY #108

Karl had quite a busy week and generated a fair bit of engagement on Facebook...

Mon 2 Nov - 41 shares.  Joking asides, bravo Karl Bushby

Wed 4 Nov - 415 shares

Thu 5 Nov - 258 shares.  An inevitably mixed response to this one

Fri 6 Nov - 77 shares

Fri 6 Nov - 927 shares

Fri 6 Nov - 101 shares

Sat 7 Nov - 88 shares

Sun 8 Nov - 11 shares.  This meme was originally posted in 2021.  The account was
deleted after a huge backlash.  Dickheads.

Sun 8 Nov - 77 shares

Sun 8 Nov - 136 shares

Sun 8 Nov - 1,287 shares

Three Facebook Stories were posted last week, but the Diversity Is Strength series remains on hold following our recent clash with the Facebook police.  The series may shift to the main page this week, as we are currently demonetised on the backup page.

BOATWATCH #84

The pre-winter rush continued last week amid calm and mild conditions.  The two and a half week lull in October has well and truly been consigned to history as more than two thousand colonists caught collaborator taxi vessels in the last fortnight.  Fog and rain is forecast for the next few days, but this will give way to dry weather towards the end of the week, so expect crossings to pick up again next weekend.

Total = 1,001 (down 192 from previous week)

COUNCIL BY-ELECTION 05.11.26

Just one solitary by-election was held this week, a successful Lib Dem defence in Dorset.  The rest of November will be quite busy, with 23 seats up for grabs over the next three weeks.

Penn Hill, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council

LDm: 1,278 (43.6%) +0.9%

Con: 764 (26.1%) +1.0%

Ref: 521 (17.8%) New

Lab: 135 (4.6%) -6.7%

Res: 106 (3.6%) New

Grn: 65 (2.2%) -6.5%

Ind: 55 (1.9%) New

Ind: 7 (0.2%) New

LDm HOLD

Triggered by the resignation of the incumbent due to 'challenging personal circumstances'.  She was elected in the 2023 local elections and her term was due to end next May anyway.  This council is a relatively new creation, having been founded in 2019.  Asides from a brief period of nine months, when the Conservatives gained outright control, the authority has spent its existence in no overall control.  The Lib Dems are currently the largest party and lead a coalition of various local independents and residents' groups.  The outcome in this suburban ward in the north east of coastal town Poole had no bearing on the existing coalition arrangement, regardless of what turned out to be a routine Lib Dem hold.  A local group called the Poole Engage Party, who fielded two candidates in 2023 and finished fifth (413 votes) and seventh (353 votes), did not stand.

Karl - LDm HOLD ✔

Rich - Con GAIN ✘

It was a dead heat between Karl and Richey going into this week and Karl's fourth successive victory in a row takes him back into the lead for the first time since July.

NO SENSE OF IRONY

Our backup page on Facebook has been silent for several days, following a 'violation' of Facebook rules.  We were both informed over the weekend by the Facebook police (based in Dublin) of the violation, which concerns the meme pictured below.

This meme was originally posted to the same page back in April 2025, when it received 656 reactions, generated 75 comments and was shared 222 times.  No problems.

The meme was reposted by Karl last week and a few days later we got hit with the following absurd violation.

Child sexual exploitation?  Clearly, this pertains to the cartoon image in the bottom right of the meme, which depicts a youngster being raped by a Muslim gang while the father is taken away for objecting to it.  The bodily parts are censored as part of the original cartoon (see below), whose creator remains unknown, such is the climate of fear and persecution in the growing police state in which we now live.

Outrageously, Karl was told that the meme (described as a 'photo' by the Facebook police) 'may exploit minors and their safety is our priority'.  Wow, imagine being accused of the type of thing you're trying to draw attention to - a bit like the father character in the cartoon!

As a result of this nonsense, the backup page is out of bounds to both of us entirely, while Karl cannot use Facebook at all - even his own personal page.

To us, it is very clear what the meme represents and is not by any means an endorsement of child grooming.  It is abundantly obvious that any human hand involved in this can see that.  Are we victims of lefty tech twattery in Dublin or is an AI algorithm to blame?

We will appeal against the decision, but all our previous appeals against Facebook censorship have failed.  If this case turns out any different, we will let you know.

UPDATE:  Facebook have responded to the appeal and, as always, they have upheld the initial decision.  They are nothing but apologists for the rape of Britain and Europe.

TOON TUESDAY #114

Budget special...

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Morten Morland for The Times

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Pete Songi on X

Graeme Bandeira for The Northern Agenda

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Morten Morland for The Times

Seamus Jennings for The Observer

Stanley McMurtry for The Mail on Sunday

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Guy Venables for Metro

Jeremy Banks for Financial Times

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

MEME MONDAY #107

We had an unexpected viral hit last week, sandwiched in between memes that generated 38 and just seven shares.  Swings and roundabouts...

Mon 26 Oct - 287 shares

Tue 27 Oct - 77 shares

Wed 28 Oct - 62 shares

Wed 28 Oct - 11 shares

Thu 29 Oct - 38 shares

Fri 30 Oct - 6,977 shares.  This meme was viewed by over 800,000
Facebook users

Sat 31 Oct - 7 shares

Sat 31 Oct - 30 shares

Sun 1 Nov - 8 shares

1 Nov - 67 shares

Just the three Facebook Stories last week.  The 'Diversity Is Strength' series was cut short by a restriction placed on the backup page (report to follow).